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Dulles Airport Surprises Passengers with Facial-Recognition Boarding

nextgov.com

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Re: Dulles Airport Surprises Passengers with Facial-Recognition Boarding

#41

Post by sokoloff »

stevehawk wrote: post #38
sokoloff wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've very rarely seen the case where there isn't a queue after the boarding pass scan and before the boarding door(s) and seating area of the airplane. This suggests that downstream of the boarding pass scan is already the true bottleneck of the system.

i believe that's why he (and the article) mentioned the A380 which can have something like 4 simultaneous embarking points (probably double that if they board from both sides of the plane).

I’ve only flown the A380 twice. Both times that still had a bottleneck in economy of people getting settled despite boarding through multiple jetways.

The bottleneck is at the seats, esp in coach/economy. On a single-aisle aircraft, this typically backs up onto the jetway, but even multiple door/aisle, the slowest agent can scan tickets and check IDs faster than people can get settled on average even when some of them can settle in parallel (perhaps one per aisle per very few rows).

Re: Dulles Airport Surprises Passengers with Facial-Recognition Boarding

#42

Post by shostack »

Johnny555 wrote: post #26
peteretep wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if I'm going to give up my privacy by having my passport photo shared with airports without my knowledge or consent The same place where you literally already have to have your passport scanned, your face photographed, you're recorded in every area that isn't a restroom, where if you're not a US national your fingerprints taken, and they literally scan you beneath your clothes? You're worried about your privacy _th…

A federal agency does that passport scanning and id check, I didn't expect them to share the same information with every airport agency in the country. I'm fine with the TSA scanning my passport, and the airport filming me. What I'm not so fine with is the airport also having my photo and identity, so now they aren't just filming me every place I walk in the airport, but they are also correlating that to my identity.

Just wait till it gets mapped to you when you enter the airport, and then they build a profile of your airport shopping behavior.

Re: Dulles Airport Surprises Passengers with Facial-Recognition Boarding

#43

Post by paulcole »

refurb wrote: post #17

Once facial recognition becomes commonplace, the impact will be huge. “What were your whereabouts on the night of June 5th?” “I was at home all night.” “You’re lying. We have confirmation your face was recognized at the gas station, grocery store and bank between the hours of 7 and 9pm.” That sends a shiver down my spine.

Maybe don’t lie to the police...

Re: Dulles Airport Surprises Passengers with Facial-Recognition Boarding

#44

Post by rdtsc »

skywhopper wrote: post #37

I’m skeptical of the faster boarding claim. My perception is that it’s the physical loading of the plane cabin, rather than the scanning of boarding passes, that wastes time. Also, having dealt with the face scanners at the border entry points I’m also skeptical that self service face scanning will be faster than just scanning a boarding pass. Not to mention that security, not boarding, is the painful part of the pro…

> “This spring, Lufthansa announced that it boarded an A380 with over 350 passengers at LAX in less than 20 minutes—less than half of their normal time—using self-boarding gates linked to CBP’s facial-enabled traveler verification service,” McAleenan said.

Lufthansa got on the PR train perhaps. Who knows? 20 doesn't sound a lot, but over many flights it starts to add up.

I think it is mostly about the international travelers just like the first sentence says:

> Some international travelers can leave their boarding passes and passports in their pockets when flying out of Dulles International Airport

They check the passports at the gate making sure you didn't swap boarding passes with someone else. For domestic travel it is usually just as you said - scan the bar code and move on.

Re: Dulles Airport Surprises Passengers with Facial-Recognition Boarding

#45

Post by acjohnson55 »

I can't remember a time when I boarded a plane that I didn't have to wait in a queue on the jet bridge. How does this help with that? Also, I'm constantly seeing people accidentally end up in the wrong row or seat because they misread the label up above. Invariably, everyone takes out boarding passes to sort it out.

Reeks of a trojan horse to get more pervasive face scanners in place.

Re: Dulles Airport Surprises Passengers with Facial-Recognition Boarding

#46

Post by larkeith »

jstarfish wrote: post #27
refurb wrote: post #17

Once facial recognition becomes commonplace, the impact will be huge. “What were your whereabouts on the night of June 5th?” “I was at home all night.” “You’re lying. We have confirmation your face was recognized at the gas station, grocery store and bank between the hours of 7 and 9pm.” That sends a shiver down my spine.

This doesn't really change anything other than just being more damning evidence against you slightly easier to obtain. If you carry a phone of any kind, it is already betraying your movements. All it takes to paint you like a game of Snake is a subpoena to Google (for GPS history) or your carrier (tower associations), assuming they don't pull your location history out of the device itself. Hell, even cars are startin…

The crucial difference here is that phone and vehicle data is something you can control - Between disabling location history, moving to a non-apple OS, and turning off your connection, there's a range of steps you can take currently to reduce or eliminate your trackable history. Ubiquitous facial identification is not something we can manage, however, and should be considered deeply concerning.

Privacy is only dead for those who allow it to be.

Re: Dulles Airport Surprises Passengers with Facial-Recognition Boarding

#47

Post by craftyguy »

rdtsc wrote: post #44
skywhopper wrote: post #37

I’m skeptical of the faster boarding claim. My perception is that it’s the physical loading of the plane cabin, rather than the scanning of boarding passes, that wastes time. Also, having dealt with the face scanners at the border entry points I’m also skeptical that self service face scanning will be faster than just scanning a boarding pass. Not to mention that security, not boarding, is the painful part of the pro…

> “This spring, Lufthansa announced that it boarded an A380 with over 350 passengers at LAX in less than 20 minutes—less than half of their normal time—using self-boarding gates linked to CBP’s facial-enabled traveler verification service,” McAleenan said. Lufthansa got on the PR train perhaps. Who knows? 20 doesn't sound a lot, but over many flights it starts to add up. I think it is mostly about the international t…

> “This spring, Lufthansa announced that it boarded an A380 with over 350 passengers at LAX in less than 20 minutes—less than half of their normal time—using self-boarding gates linked to CBP’s facial-enabled traveler verification service,” McAleenan said.

This smells of a staged PR stunt. Or, maybe "boarded" means people were all through the gate, but not necessarily on the plane?

Re: Dulles Airport Surprises Passengers with Facial-Recognition Boarding

#48

Post by _ouxp »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #6
azernik wrote: post #4

Note - this is only for international flights, where CBP takes your photo anyway. Data retention period is 14 days for pilot testing, 12 hours for some unspecified "short term", and zero after that.

> Note - this is only for international flights, where CBP takes your photo anyway. Not typically on outbound flights, only inbound as part of customs.

And inbound is only because they have installed kiosks that they guide everyone to. Otherwise if you go to a CBP agent they don't take your photo if you're a US passport holder. The kiosks are an end-run around tradition/rules about how CBP can treat Americans.

Re: Dulles Airport Surprises Passengers with Facial-Recognition Boarding

#49

Post by ataturk »

What this is for: Using private industry to build a facial database that can later be obtained by the government via subpoena, further proving that individual rights are a joke as long as we the people allow corporations and government to work so closely together.

And just to drive home how complete the control is becoming, I am limited to only one post a day here. Dissenting voices are being driven from the Internet. God help us all if they succeed at suppressing speech completely--it will be just like China.

Re: Dulles Airport Surprises Passengers with Facial-Recognition Boarding

#50

Post by gok »

jedberg wrote: post #36

> Officials touted the additional security the system provides—meeting a Congressional mandate to include biometric screenings— Said someone who clearly doesn’t understand security. The entire point of adding biometrics is that it is in addition to the passport, not instead of. All they’ve done here is trade something you have with something you are. Sigh.

To say that a boarding pass is “something you have” in a security sense is absurd. I can print your boarding pass merely by knowing your name and where you’re going. A biometric check (backed by a paper ID check) is a dramatic security upgrade over that.
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